It's not often a sports journalist has the talent to actually excel at the sport he loves to write about, but that's the case with Roland De Wolfe. Working for Britain's Inside Edge magazine, he was fully immersed in the poker industry, covering tournaments around the world, when he decided to step even further into the mix and play professionally himself.

It was a long time coming though for the London native, who practically grew up gambling and playing poker.

Coming from a family that loves making wagers, De Wolfe says he's always been into gambling. He can remember playing cards on the school bus at age 12 and betting on tennis in a friend's yard when he was 14. As soon as he was old enough to get in, he was hustling pool games at the local pubs.

De Wolfe admits he still loves the casinos and betting, but his real love is now poker. He honed his skills in games while still in school and at the local snooker clubs.

That betting and poker experience, paired with his training for writing in a journalism course at Brighton, made him the perfect candidate for a job with Inside Edge reporting on poker tournaments. He traveled the poker circuit reporting on events and slowly worked his way into playing them as well.

He was already honing his game in cash games when not on the road. He had a rocky start playing cash games at the Victoria Casino in London, where he failed to win any money. He also played against his Inside Edge boss, Warren Wooldridge, and on the Internet.

His game is strongest though in tournament play, where his aggressive style has paid off big for him.

Since hitting the poker tournament circuit in 2004, De Wolfe has amassed millions in winnings from around the world. Those include some World Series of Poker cashes - one of which was a third place finish in the 2006 $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout - European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour event wins and cashes, and many more.

In 2005, he won the main event of the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, earning his first championship title. He followed that up 15 months later with a win at the EPT Irish Masters, making him the first person to win both an EPT and WPT championship event.